Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo Reaches Space For First Time

Los Angeles, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th Dec, 2018 ) :Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo flew higher than it ever has before, surpassing what the US Air Force considers the boundary of space, and marking the first manned flight to space from US soil since 2011.

The United States has not sent any people to space since the US space shuttle program ended in 2011, and has relied on Russian Soyuz rockets to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station.

In the meantime, a commercial space race is underway as companies rush to build spacecraft that can carry astronauts and tourists into microgravity.

Virgin Galactic marked a major milestone on Thursday in that race, as its spaceship made it to a peak height, or apogee, of 51.4 miles (82.7 kilometers), after taking off attached to an airplane from Mojave, California, then firing its rocket motors to reach new heights.

"We made it to space," the company said on Twitter.

"We travelled at 2.9 Mach on the way up to today. That's 2.9 times the speed of sound." The flight -- with two pilots on board -- was a major victory for the company headed by British tycoon Richard Branson, who is striving to send tourists to space at a cost of $250,000 per seat.

The commonly accepted international definition of space is 62 miles high (100 kilometers), but the US Air Force considers the space boundary to be a bit lower, at 50 miles.

Virgin Galactic has said it would use the US Air Force's definition of space as its standard.

In July, after burning the rocket motor for 42 seconds, the VSS Unity reached a height of 32 miles.

Commercial airplanes typically fly at an altitude of about six miles, while the orbiting International Space Station is some 250 miles high.

Another US rocket company, Blue Origin, founded by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, is also working to send tourists to space, but using a small rocket to get there.

Virgin's first flight date had been pushed back multiple times, following a test flight accident that killed a co-pilot in 2014.

Branson told CNN in November he hoped to send people to space "before Christmas."More than 600 clients have already paid $250,000 for a ticket.